Things to do in London this weekend (October 17-18)

The BFI London Film Festival continues this week with days and nights of movies, big and small, at cinemas and venues across London. Now in its 70th year, the London Film Festival is the UK’s biggest film fest – an annual showcase for the best in premieres, new movies, restored works from the BFI archives, short films, virtual reality experiences, screen talks, panels and parties. As you’d expect, most of the big premieres are already long since sold out, but there’s still plenty of stuff to see and do for London’s more spontaneous (or less organised) film fans; nab tickets for one of the VR and XR experiences in the LFF Expanded programme, spend some time exploring the drop-in games lounge, and immersive installation Red the Ocean Around U, or head to a free DJ night in the BFI. And don’t forget that you can always queue up for returns, too!

Kew’s Halloween trails – from the producers of Kew Gardens’ beloved Christmas trail – is a souped-up light trail for scare season. We’re promised eerie illuminated trees, ghoulish installations, fire performers and more, with a troupe of actors on hand to stoke up our horrors (in a family-friendly way, of course). Twilight slots are between 6pm and 7.30pm, and things are definitely getting a bit scarier (ie darker). Moonlight slots run after 7.30pm when it should be fully dark.

When the camera was first invented, it was a wonder of science, able to capture images with an accuracy that had never been seen before. But soon, instead of being seen as a rival to painters and sculptors, photographers began to join them as artists, interested in all the creative possibilities of this new method of image making. Tate Modern’s new group exhibition explores how art photography emerged as a discipline between the 1880s and 1960s, taking an international approach that spans places from Shanghai to Sydney, New York to Cape Town, and Brazil to Singapore.

Trèsind Mayfair is the London outpost of a Dubai restaurant whose sister operation has three Michelin stars. The dining room is Mayfair, the Signature Tasting Menu is a chunky £138, and there is a great deal of explaining. The meal even starts with an absolutely pointless gold vase full of cherry blossom-infused dry ice that wafts over you like God’s own fart. And yet. That Signature Tasting Menu is a showcase for some extremely accomplished cooking. Not always serious and seldom conventional, it is laudably ambitious and actually great fun. Arugula pani puri arrive as tiny crisp globes, filled with preserved pear. There’s very chic-looking ghewar chaat and even duck confit served with an alarmingly incongruous corn waffle, and tortellini smuggled onto an Indian fine-dining menu with Gorgonzola dolce, smoked chicken makhani and chilli jam. Here, the food is testament to the creativity of chef Amit Bagyal and his team.

The veteran Black and Asian dance company Ballet Black turns a quarter of a century old this October. To celebrate the big Two-Five, Ballet Black is putting on a double bill at Sadler’s Wells. First up is the Olivier Award-winning Ignoma inspired by the South African miner’s strike, followed by the UK premiere of …all towards hope, a joyful tribute to the company choreographed by Alvin Ailey alumnus Hope Boykin.

The so-called ‘king of coloured photography’, William Eggleston made his name photographing roadside diners, suburban streets and domestic spaces across the USA, using dye transfer to bring the images to life. Through his striking, pioneering work, it’s easy to get a sense of the alienation, loneliness and desire that perforated the American Dream of the mid-twentieth century. This major exhibition will mark 50 years since his landmark book Willian Eggleston’s Guide was published, displaying some of his most iconic imagery alongside lesser-known deepcuts, including some taken pre-colour. 

The year is 1381. Plague has killed half the population, grief and hardship engulf the survivors, and it’s only halfway through the Hundred Years’ War, which has bankrupted the state. Afraid of angering the wealthy, the crooked council of boy king Richard II tax the common people, stealing from the poor to prop up the rich. The peasants are stretched to breaking point – and when a grieving ploughman (Andrew Garfield) snaps, he sparks an uprising that unites the peasantry, joining rabble-rousers John Ball (Jamie Bell) and Wat Tyler (Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis) to march on London and demand a new deal from the king. The Uprising is a Robin Hood origin story with committed performances, evocative medieval production design and fluid, visceral camera work that puts you right in the thick of the action. 

Turn picking your pumpkin into a whole seasonal extravaganza at Berkshire's Wasing Estate, which has laid on plenty of fun add ons to the main event. Cast your wish at a wishing well, explore a mysterious witches apothecary, and spot woodland creatures at this whimsical October spectacular. There's also a dining tent on offer, serving up locally grown delights including, naturally, pumpkin soup.

Leave the children at home for this salacious ballet. For the past 40 years, Kenneth’s MacMillan’s three-act masterpiece, adapted from Abbé Prévost’s book ‘L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut’ has entranced audiences and divided critics.
The late choreographer’s ‘Manon’ has bite. A story of questionable morals – or lack thereof – has all the traits for a rich, dense production full of star-struck lovers, manipulative siblings, hedonistic antics, debauched seduction, shame and murder. The duets are beyond sublime, with statuesque lines and holds that will make you gasp for breath. 

Spectacular scares are the name of the game at Rooftop Film Club’s Halloween offering, which will be turning Peckham’s majestically appointed Bussey Building into a house of horrors (okay, roof of horrors). So far, this year’s series of scary movies includes The Blair Witch Project on Tuesday. Watch this space as more titles and special events are announced.

It’s been five decades since Kingston-born performers and visual artists Throbbing Gristle thrust onto the scene. On October 18 1976, the group staged their now infamous Prostitution exhibition at the ICA, with their explicit photographs, drug paraphernalia and provocative live performance igniting fierce tabloid uproar. One Tory MP went so far as to call them ‘wreckers of civilisation’. Fifty years on, members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti will be back at the ICA for the exhibition’s anniversary. Fans are invited to gather at the venue from midday to listen to TG’s tunes in the main theatre, share stories of the band and their importance to them, pick up exclusive merch and meet the pair at a signing later in the afternoon. Tickets to see Carter and Tutti in conversation with Luke Turner are now sold out, but you can still book onto the screening of Throbbing Gristle - Live at Kezar Pavilion, which was the band’s final performance before it dissolved in 1981. 

Facebook promised a digital town square but delivered more of a wackier version of the Nuremberg rallies. These days, Mark Zuckerberg is perceived as closer to a Bond villain than the geeky vibes guy we once thought we knew. At least, that’s the premise of Aaron Sorkin’s rigorous but conventional follow-up to the David Fincher-directed The Social Network, and it’s a tough one to argue with. Sorkin swaps the Zuckerberg perspective of The Social Network with an old-fashioned journalism procedural, relegating the man to a side character. Jeremy Allen White is the Wall Street Journal’s new tech reporter, Jeff Horwitz, sent to San Francisco to investigate rumours that Facebook’s algorithm is causing a spike in online toxicity. An opening vignette shows a blonde woman losing her shit at two police officers of colour during a routine breakdown, footage that later goes viral. The reveal? She’d been radicalised by her addictive use of the social media site. Enter disillusioned Facebook data engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), an old friend of the woman’s, to whistleblow, at first reluctantly but then with more conviction as the social media platform gets more and more toxic. Sorkin’s screenplay for The Social Network didn’t have much time for Zuckerberg the man. His follow-up is contemptuous of Zuckerberg the CEO. 

Marianne Elliott’s in-the-round production of Edward Albee’s 1962 masterpiece Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is so intimate – not to mention intense – that after a while the thrill of Gillian Anderson and her co-star Billy Crudup being a couple of metres away is replaced by a sort of horror, a sense that we are physically in the room for the madness. Miriam Buether’s living room set is both impressively tasteful and ominous. It belongs to George (Crudup) and Martha (Anderson), a history professor at a mid-tier American university, and his wife, who is the daughter of the college’s president. Alone together in the opening scene, they bicker and snipe. But that’s nothing compared to the hell they unleash when George’s new younger colleague Nick (Josh Dylan) and his wife Honey (Phoebe Horn) swing by. This is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? filtered and distilled and thrust in our faces. 

If Tate’s 2025 programme was big on the 80s, then 2026 is all about The 90s! Following on from a major Tracey Emin retrospective at Tate Modern, its sister gallery Tate Britain will host a blockbuster autumn show about British art, fashion, photography and pop culture in the final decade of the last millennium. It’s curated by none other than former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful OBE. Expect flashy photography from the likes of Juergen Teller, Nick Knight, David Sims and Corrine Day, iconic looks from Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and era-defining artworks by Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing, and Yinka Shonibare.

Taking place across The Place, Sadler’s Wells, the Barbican and online, the massive annual contemporary dance festival returns to London this October, bringing groundbreaking artists from South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon, Britain and the Netherlands. Spanning live performance, artist talks, film screenings and more, highlights include Dance is Not for Us at the Barbican Pit, a rare UK performance from Lyon-based Lebanese choreographer Omar Rajeh. Legendary British choreographer Akram Khan will be in conversation with Kevin O’Hare, director of The Royal Ballet alongside English National Ballet lead principal Erina Takahashi and first soloist James Streeter. South African dance artist and recipient of the 2026 Venice Biennale Silver Lion Mamela Nyamza will be in town to put on a brand new work at Sadler’s Wells East. Plus much more across the month. 

The American painter Robert Ryman (1930-2019) was a master of minimalism (even though he was reluctant to apply the term to his own work). For decades, he painted his signature white-on-white paintings, urging the viewer to look closely at his brushstrokes in all their tactile glory, and to enjoy the subtlety and nuance of the varied effects he achieved. His works aren't often shown in the UK, and this Barbican exhibition will be their first major airing in over 30 years. There'll be 60 paintings on display spanning his sixty year career, in a contemplative tribute to this influential artist. 

Is getting a drink with an ex always a bad idea? If the aim to create the chaos and drama befitting a side-splitting one-act play, well: you might be onto something. Debuting in London after runs in New York and Los Angeles, Douglas Lyons’ Table 17 is dependent on people making bad, often unjustifiable, choices. Decisions are made, and details are revealed that elicit audible boos from the audience. Directed by Tony-winner Zhailon Levingston, Table 17 is unafraid to conjure these big emotions – and big sounds – from its crowd. The show flips from laugh-out-loud hilarity to genuine tragedy in minutes, changing costumes and switching timelines at equal pace. It’s a stylish and exhilarating theatrical experience, jolted forward by three powerful, emotive performances. This is a piece of theatre that’s heartfelt, hilarious, and honestly challenging. 

This revival of Jay Presson Allen’s 1989 Truman Capote monologue was initially staged in the stunning House of the Redeemer in New York, the sort of opulent old Manhattan building of your wildest dreams. How would a London transfer work? A huge part of the joy of the London Tru is how designer Paul Farnsworth has transformed the entire Menier space into a faithful recreation of Capote’s New York apartment. Jesse Tyler Ferguson offers a funny, often very poignant channeling of the Alabama-raised author and socialite. That distinctive voice could so easily fall into parody, but Ferguson brings Capote to life, aided by the fact that the play is set at a very painful time in his life. Rob Ashford’s production is very classy indeed. It’s a very enjoyable tribute, beautifully staged.

Best known for his eye-popping, fantastical fashion photography for titles including British Vogue, i-D, W, Vanity Fair and Another Man, British photographer Tim Walker has spent the past five years photographing the nation’s LGBTQ+ trailblazers in preparation for this major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. His first show in London since the V&A’s acclaimed exhibition in 2019, it will be accompanied by a book featuring contributions from Travis Alabanza, Russell T Davies, Shon Faye, Lisa Power and Joelle Taylor.

One of the buzziest late night shows of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Soul Sewage is Sam Eley’s debut hour as Basil Crumbwick – a horny, embittered old man with a papier maché head. Both uncomfortable and hilarious, it’s recreating some of that Fringe magic by being staged about as late as Soho Theatre goes, or at least it is for its initial October run. That’s now sold out, but Eley (and Basil) will be back for another crack at it in January 2027.

London’s art lovers go mad for a bit of French Impressionism, so it’s a little surprising that the capital hasn’t hosted an exhibition on one of its leading figures, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, since the National Gallery’s 2007 show on his landscapes nearly 20 years ago. It’s excellent news, then, that the Trafalgar Square institution will once again be hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the master painter next autumn. Created in partnership with Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Renoir and Love will focus on the most significant and prolific years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s. Opening in October 2026, it will feature several of Renoir’s most iconic works, including  the 1876 painting Bal au Moulin de la Galette, exhibited for the first time ever in the UK. 

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. The line-up offers a plethora of ghostly tours that will take you around crypts, cemeteries, undertakers, execution sites and other eerie locations across the city, alongside talks exploring everything from Victorian child bereavement to anthropodermic leather. Highlights of this year’s programme also include a bat skeleton mounting workshop, a magic shadow show in West Norwood Cemetery, a five hour immersive forensics workshop, a screening of eerie classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari with live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne, and creepy Halloween festival A Danse Macabre. It doesn’t get more gothic than that! 

Playwright and novelist Partrick Hamilton’s interwar trilogy of novels Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky sketch the energetic jazz clubs or bohemian underground bars that beam against the growth of inner-city poverty in London between the 1920s and 1930s. This adaptation by multi-award-winning dramatist Simon Reade sets itself up to thrill. Ella Dawson (Rosalind Lailey) cleverly plays a quiet and empathetic barmaid who pines after Bob. And best of the bunch is the wily, mysterious and devilishly charming Ernest Eccles (Michael Maloney). There are moments of sheer brilliance: magical jazz dancing, moments of intoxicated rage and touching scenes of youthful discontent. It's a must-see for any theatre-goer who likes to be glum with this cast of broke, drunk, city-dwellers who like to spiral and make all the wrong decisions. 

Korean pop culture has won our hearts over the last decade or so, but how much do you know about the country’s history? The British Museum’s new exhibition dedicated to the east Asian country includes sculpture, painting and decorative arts spanning over two millennia from around 300 BC to the present day. The show is a deep dive into Korean creativity, and according to the museum, “presents the most comprehensive chronological survey of Korean visual and material culture seen in Europe for over 40 years”. Look out for National Treasures including ancient gold body ornaments and Buddhist icons, as well as 12th- and 13th-century celadon-glazed stoneware, evocative ink landscapes and contemporary works responding to the turbulence of the 20th century. It’s a collection that’s never been seen in the UK before. 

Painters have been being dazzled by the glorious natural light and sparkling azure sea of the French Riviera for centuries. This autumn, you’ll be able to feel like you’re taking in the sea air on the Côte d’Azur from London, as the Royal Academy brings together artworks depicting the French southern coast from greats including Monet, Braque, Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein. Spanning the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists, Painting the French Riviera will not only transport you to the SAD-beating coastline, but explore how the riviera was inextricably linked to the rise of modern art. 

Tony and Olivier Award-winning English artist and stage designer Es Devlin gets her first UK museum show this autumn. The Design Museum’s landmark retrospective will delve into the stories behind the London-based designer’s 30-year practice encompassing everything from kinetic stage sculptures to monumental art installations. Developed in close collaboration with Devlin – who has worked on everything from the Olympic opening ceremony to the Superbowl half-time show – it will feature rare maquettes, sketches, annotated texts and process materials, as well as new large scale installations conceived especially for the exhibition. 

In his latest paintings, Pakistan-born, New York-based artist Salman Toor explores the struggle and desire for belonging, both culturally and emotionally. Bringing together 19 of the artist’s paintings, some of which have never been seen in Britain before, this is Toor’s first solo exhibition in Europe and will be full of work deeply rooted in his personal experiences, as well as inspired by an admiration for the Old Masters, especially in Baroque and 18th-century painting. 

Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery will be filled with apples, hats, pipes and clouds this autumn as it hosts a free exhibition on Belgian surrealist René Magritte. A first major London exhibition of Magritte’s subverside artwork in more than 30 years, it will feature works on paper, sculptures and photography from Magritte’s four-decade-long career, many of which have been loaned by museums and private collectors. These include ‘La Lampe Philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp)’, made shortly before the International Surrealist Exhibition that took place in London in 1936, and last displayed in a landmark Magritte exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 20 years ago. Gagosian’s exhibtiion will also explore Magritte’s legacy via works created specifically for the exhibition by several contemporary artists, including painters Harold Ancart, Allison Katz and Dana Schutz. 

New-York based artist Autumn Knight constructs installations and performances inspired by her background in theatre and psychology. In I Can’t Complain, her first major presentation in the UK, she explores the act of complaining and the ways in which it can be cathartic, frustrating and politically empowering. At the centre of the show is an audio installation that collates coversations about everyday irritations, exposing how minor things like food quality can be indicative of deeper inequalities. On select days (October 1,12 and 15), Knight will be in the space for solo performances that delve further into the concept of complaining, asking questions about who gets to complain? And how are those complaints received? 

English artist Jenkin Van Zyl is known for his immersive installations that cast you into unsettling scenarios. Enclosure is set within a decaying facility where tourists could temporarily inhabit the lives of others. He’s created a whole world where people could renew or terminate their doubles and sees Mercy, a starlet who lent her likeness to the programme, arrive to terminate her contract, where the process begins to collapse. The work asks pertinent questions about the systems we create for ourselves and the human need for self-preservation. It’s a large-scale work where visitors move through ‘facility’, past fairground signage, holograms, inflatable cocoons and decaying ephemera.